Aleppo , Syria -LRB- CNN -RRB- -- Somehow , the hundreds of thousands of Syrians who ca n't -- or wo n't -- leave this battleground city have grown accustomed to living in a state of war .

But they have also shown that they do not want to live in a state of anarchy .

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On a side street , not far from where goats graze next to a burned-out ambulance in what used to be a neighborhood park , stand the offices of what can only be described as a rebel court .

The United Courts Council operates without the authority or recognition of any central government . It stands on the opposition-held side of the front lines that divide this city .

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This self-appointed council of judges , lawyers and clerics started working four months ago . Judging by the line of supplicants waiting in the halls , residents appear to have granted this court

some degree of popular legitimacy .

In rooms marked `` Civil Court '' and `` Personal Affairs Court , '' legal workers on a recent day issued birth and death certificates , signed divorce papers and listened to lawyers plead their clients ' cases in a family property dispute .

Nobody flinched when blasts from artillery shells rocked nearby neighborhoods .

`` We created this temporary judicial council as an emergency solution , like when a doctor removes a bullet from a patient without using anesthetic , '' said Marwan Gayed .

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Gayed is a former appeals court judge who defected from the Syrian government and now serves as the general prosecutor for the United Courts Council . He sat in an office , signing legal documents and stamping them with the council 's seal , oblivious to thunderous explosions echoing outside .

`` We have a deteriorating humanitarian situation , '' he added . `` We came to work to stop people like the Free Syrian Army or others from taking advantage of the weak and to maintain law and order inside liberated areas . '' The Free Syrian Army is the main rebel force fighting the government of President Bashar al-Assad .

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Even a temporary judicial system requires some system of detention and punishment .

The council has about 100 prisoners detained in a series of makeshift jail cells in a basement that resembles a dungeon .

In the `` military prison , '' a court founded by rebels has incarcerated rebels accused of committing war crimes .

During a visit by CNN journalists , more than a dozen men sat on mats in a cavernous room .

Some of the inmates said they were there on charges of robbery and theft .

Others , like a bearded fighter who called himself Abu Younus , were being investigated for leading men into a battle that resulted in the friendly fire deaths of many fellow rebels . Abu Younus made an emotional plea , declaring his innocence .

`` God , you know that I am innocent , '' he bellowed , raising hands and face to the ceiling . `` Please god reveal the truth . ''

Then he suddenly collapsed on the ground .

`` He passes out when he gets excited , '' a prison guard explained .

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Another jailed rebel , who asked not to be named , said , `` I am a member of the Free Syrian Army and the captain of a battalion . I tortured a shabiha '' -- a pro-government militia-man -- `` and he died three days later .

`` I turned myself in . And now I 'm waiting for the law to take its course ... in this failure of a court . ''

The jailed rebels were being held in the same prison cell with several captured loyalist soldiers . Men who could have been trying to kill each other on the battlefield weeks ago slept side by side on the floor and shared prison food .

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The conditions in the basement prison were grim , dark and cold . Yet at first glance , inmates there appeared to be treated better than at another makeshift rebel jail CNN visited in northern Syria last August .

There , CNN saw more than 40 prisoners being held at a time in a single , over-crowded room . Some of those detainees , especially members of the shabiha militia , showed obvious signs of torture .

At the United Courts Council jail in Aleppo , the prison warden led visitors to another cell , where men sat with their backs to the walls under heavy blankets . Some read books . One inmate read a newspaper .

`` This section is for shabiha , informants , collaborators , spies and homosexuals , '' said the warden , who asked to be named only Abu Abdo .

Abu Abdo , a former officer from Syria 's foreign security service , insisted he was trying to reform rather than punish the prisoners by giving them regular lessons in Islam .

In fact , one of the judges explained that he and his colleagues are following a `` Unified Arab Criminal Code '' adopted by the Arab League , which is rooted in Islamic law .

`` This basically follows sharia , while taking into consideration modern Muslim life , '' said Mohammed Najib Banna .

Banna , who had been a teacher in a religious school and a cleric reading sermons at a mosque , is now a judge in the council 's Military Court .

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`` Our work now will prepare us for the day when the regime falls , because then there will be anarchy , '' Banna said .

While some of the detainees in the prison are accused of committing crimes on the battlefield , others are detained for charges ranging from adultery to prostitution and `` disobeying parents . ''

This is especially true in the women 's jail cell , where most of the inmates hid their faces under blankets during a visit by CNN .

Among the detainees was a teenage girl , the daughter of a couple who were both also incarcerated in the prison .

Some of the women were also accused of spying for the Syrian regime .

One woman stood and repeatedly performed a salute , accompanied by a martial stamp of her foot .

Asked who she was saluting , she listed the names of the father and son who have ruled Syria for 40 years : `` President Hafez al Assad , President Bashar Hafez al-Assad . ''

`` May God give victory to Bashar al-Assad , '' she said with a smile . `` Because they 're saying lies about him . He 's likeable , excellent in every way . ''

Then she started saluting again .

Another 23-year-old woman who asked not to be named said she had been arrested 16 days previously for being a shabiha .

`` I cooperated with the state while I was in university . I used to go and come back and communicate with them , '' she said . `` And I would go to demonstrations supporting the president . ''

One might assume the United Courts Council had been formed to create a rival judicial structure to the Syrian government , which is believed to control a quarter to a third of Aleppo .

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But a visit to the office of Gayed , the council 's prosecutor , revealed political tension between rival rebel groups .

The suavely dressed former judge had a half dozen guests seated around his desk , most of whom were lawyers hoping to set up a similar court in the opposition-held northern town of Maraa .

There was also a stocky , bearded man dressed in a camouflage uniform who quickly excused himself after journalists entered the room .

`` The man was here from Jabhat al-Nusra , '' Gayed explained after the man left . `` He was asking me to hand over a prisoner to his court system . I said no . ''

Jabhat al-Nusra , or Nusra Front , is a well-organized Islamist fighting group . The U.S. government recently black-listed the group , accusing of it being a terrorist organization .

`` We black-listed the Nusra Front because of its intimate links with al Qaeda in Iraq , '' said Robert Ford , the former U.S. ambassador to Syria , in an interview with CNN in Turkey .

`` Nusra has a sectarian agenda ... -LRB- it -RRB- is anti-democratic and will seek to impose its very strict interpretation of Islam on Syria , '' Ford said .

But Gayed , asked about al-Nusra , called its members `` our brothers in the revolution . They bleed for it . But we differ on how to build the state . ''

`` We are calling for a civil democratic nation . They call for an Islamic state , '' he said . `` The U.S. and the European Union did n't help us , and that created an increase in Islamic radicalism . ...

`` Up until now we can control the situation , '' Gayed warned . `` But later on , we may not be able to contain it . ''

Gayed argued his council 's experiment in rebel justice is a more tolerant alternative to the Islamic courts that Nusra Front has reportedly been establishing in Aleppo and in other rebel controlled towns .

The United Courts Council is working to expand its law-and-order model to other communities in the largely rebel-held north .

It is a desperate strategy , council members admitted , aimed at preventing Syria from descending further into chaos

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The United Courts Council operates in areas controlled by rebels

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It is a self-appointed council of judges , lawyers and clerics

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It protects the weak and maintains order in liberated areas , an official says

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About 100 prisoners are detained in a series of makeshift jail cells